Adolf Hitler's Table Talk-1941-1944

682 ON POACHING of

682 ON POACHING of course; but they will be quickly released, to prevent them from coming into contact with the professional criminals and being subverted by them. But such anomalies as the sentencing of one man to two and a half years' imprisonment because his dog has killed a child, and of another, a poacher, to three years for killing a hare, cannot be tolerated. With poachers, let the punishment fit the crime—enrol them in the pioneer corps and send them to fight against the guerrillas! That a poacher will sometimes shoot to kill when caught in the act is a heritage from the old days when a peasant was subjected to torture for having killed a hare which was ruining his crops. Personally, I cannot see what possible pleasure can be derived from shooting. Think of the tremendous ceremony that accompanies the slaughter of a deer! And the hare is shot, not sitting, but on the run, to make his end more spectacular. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals would do well to turn its attention to the sportsmen themselves. One of the prime causes of peasant revolts against their seigneurs has been exasperation at the damage to crops and fields done by the latter in pursuit of their pleasures. Do not think I am pleading the cause of the poacher because I am one myself! I have never fired at a hare in my life. I am neither poacher nor sportsman. Among mountaineers, shooting has become a passion. A youngster will crawl up a dozen hills during the night in the hope of getting his chamois and particularly the male of the species. One must, of course, remember that meat is very scarce in the mountains, and that game is very often the only meat a mountaineer can obtain. Of course we must suppress the activities of the poachers. But, as I have said, let the punishment fit the crime—send them to fight the guerrillas, make them into a marksman's corps d'elitel After all, the best gamekeepers are retired poachers! In regions like the Styriaj Salzburg and the Tyrol, if I excluded poachers from the Party, we should lose the support of entire districts. Like chamois, girls are rare in the mountains. I must say, I admire those lads who tramp for hours through the night,

AUSTRIAN GAULEITERS 683 carrying a heavy ladder and running the risk of being badly bitten by the watch-dog—or of having a bucket of cold water thrown over them for their pains ! I have much more sympathy for them than for the type who wanders round the big cities, rattling his five or ten marks in his pocket ! On the other hand, there are times when the countryside has its advantages, though none but the brave deserve the fair. The nights of May, the month of the festival of the Holy Virgin, are wonderful in the country—and afford wonderful opportunities for a tender rendezvous, to say nothing of the various pilgrimages, which offer a good excuse to spend the night anywhere. In Austria it is in Carinthia that these happy practices are most prevalent, and it is there one finds the loveliest maids ! I am very glad that I sent Rainer to Garinthia—he comes from those parts. In point of fact all the Gauleiter in Austria are good men. I was deeply grieved to hear that the former Gauleiter of the Lower Danube had been killed in action. Leopold was a man of outstanding quality; with his company he used to protect my rallies in Austria with the utmost efficiency. He was a Captain in the Army of the Republic and at the same time chief of his local section of the Party. He was no great orator, but a man of exceptional idealism. I did not even know that he was at the front; had I known of his intentions, I should certainly have stopped his going. 309 and September 1942, evening A "Museum of the Chase"—Political evolution of Britain— Possibility of a volte face by Churchill—The Tories oppose Churchill—American greed—My contacts with Lord Rotherrnere. What an absurd monstrosity Christian Weber's Museum of the Chase is! In Munich there is an Alpine museum; but it is not the mountaineers who visit it—they are all out on the mountainside. I said to Weber: "You're a clever fellow in lots of ways, but the one thing of which you know nothing is Art. Not a soul in Munich will put a foot inside your Museum—the sportsmen won't, and the others most certainly will not." I don't mind sports in their proper place. Let the youngsters